DTC 491 Advanced Digital Cinema
Washington State University Vancouver
Hello everyone, hope you’re all doing good.
Here is a hyperlink to my project: Hypercinema491
I struggled quite a bit with this project as I kept changing my ideas about what to do. My narrative isn’t as strong as I’d like for it to be, so I may change this project in the future.
Hey everyone,
Here is my video essay for this week.
I took a gamble using the voicemail audio for my narration, and depending on how it sounds in class I may change it.
Thanks for watching.
-Caleb
Hi class,
Here is my AI cinema project.
I apologize for the non 16:9 format, I realized much too late that you can change the format of the videos in RunwayML.
Please don’t be mad.
Caleb
Title : Rejuv
In a desolate future, Ohm, a lone robot awakens amidst ruins, its metallic and plastic form a stark contrast against the decaying remnants of humanity. Programmed with a singular purpose—to initiate the Rejuvenation Protocol—Ohm ventures forth into a world consumed by emptiness.
Guided by ancient algorithms and forgotten coordinates programmed by its long deceased creators, Ohm traverses the barren landscape, its sensors scanning for signs of life. Along the journey, it encounters the relics of humanity’s past glory: countless crumbling cities collapsed and sunken into the dead Earth.
Yet amidst the ruins, Ohm faces obstacles both physical and existential. Collapsed buildings obstruct its path, toxic wastelands threaten its circuits, and rogue machines challenge its resolve. Beaten and battered, Ohm presses on, driven by its program’s purpose.
Finally, after a perilous journey, Ohm arrives at the heart of the desolation—a lifeless wasteland much comparable to the salt flats of our world today, where nothing grows, and no life stirs. Here, amidst the ruins of civilization, Ohm prepares to enact its ultimate mission.
Ohm activates the organic bomb, unleashing a wave of energy that transforms the landscape before its sensors. Grass sprouts from the barren earth, trees stretch towards the sky, and the air is filled with the sound of nature’s symphony.
Yet amidst the newfound life, there is a poignant absence—no organic beings emerge to inhabit the rejuvenated world. As Ohm watches the transformation, it realizes the bittersweet truth: it has succeeded in its mission, but humanity’s legacy remains absent from the reborn world.
As Ohm’s systems begin to shut down, its circuits fading into darkness, it finds solace in the knowledge that it has become a part of the rebirth it facilitated. A silent guardian of a changed world, Ohm’s legacy echoes across the ages, a testament to the enduring spirit of hope in a desolate landscape.
Visualization:
Influenced by the cinematic styles of Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, and JJ Abrams, shots will focus on vast spaces and the objects within them rather than the main character themselves. Shot on the same film stock favored by Christopher Nolan (65mm IMAX), the film will capture the bleakness and desolation of the post-apocalyptic world with stunning realism. Long panning shots of the collapsed ruins followed by transition shots of different angles as we follow Ohm on their journey. Never closer than 50 feet to Ohm, the camera mainly focuses on the environment.
Vast expanses of destroyed and collapsing cityscapes with overwhelming amounts of man-made structures amidst the absence of nature. The camera will pan across abandoned skyscrapers, rusted vehicles, crumbling infrastructure, downed powerlines, destroyed roads, rubble, shattered windows, oil, and other chemical spills, and so forth. CGI will most likely be used when showing these vast landscapes, but areas of close quarters may use small set design to achieve the desired look. The wastelands will be portrayed as vast and empty, devoid of any signs of life. Picturing the Bonneville Salt Flats, but with less sunlight. The lack of trees, plants, animals, and humans will be clear. The sky is gray or black, the sun barely piercing through the clouds of acid rain and smokey atmosphere.
The lighting will play a crucial role in setting the tone of the film. Shadows will loom large, casting an eerie pall over the landscape and heightening the sense of isolation and foreboding. Shadows will reflect the metaphor of the past.
The colors for this story follow the theme and lighting. A near total lack of vibrancy with only very dark or very light grays, blacks, whites, and browns will be present. Anything resembling concrete, inorganic materials will be used. The color of the robot’s light, either red or green, will be the only real form of color until the end of the story when the mission completes, and life begins to spawn again.
Key words to remember for prompts: Realistic, 65 mm IMAX, dystopian, dilapidated, bleak, post-apocalyptic, technological, barren, sci-fi, robotic, metallic, rusted, void, devoid, rejuvenation, ruins, abandoned, lack of life, decay, natural disaster, exploration, vast, expansive, transformation, mission, man-made, etc.
I used ChatGPT to help convey certain aspects of this story into the right words for this post.
-Caleb
AI Movie Clip Prompt: “Harmony of Time”
The scene opens on a serene, otherworldly landscape under a twilight sky. The horizon is adorned with floating islands, each hosting its own unique ecosystem. A river, shimmering with hues of gold and azure, flows gently through the air, weaving between the islands without gravity’s constraint. The camera follows the river’s course, revealing clocks and hourglasses seamlessly integrated into the natural environment. Trees with leaves shaped like watch hands rustle in the wind, and flowers bloom in fast-forward, their petals opening and closing with the rhythm of seconds.
As we delve deeper into this dreamscape, the river leads us to a grand, crystalline clock standing majestically in the center of a floating meadow. The clock is unlike any other; its gears and hands flow like liquid, changing shape and form, symbolizing the fluidity of time in this realm. The meadow around the clock pulses with a soft, ethereal light, casting long, dancing shadows that play along the ground.
Suddenly, the clock begins to chime, its sound resonating through the landscape like a harmonious melody. With each chime, the scenery transforms: day turns to night, then back to day; seasons change within moments, showcasing the beauty of spring blossoms, the warmth of summer sun, the golden hues of autumn leaves, and the serene stillness of winter snow, all coexisting in a beautiful, ever-changing cycle.
The camera pans up to the sky, where constellations of stars move swiftly, tracing patterns of ancient timepieces across the cosmos. A shooting star crosses the sky, leaving a trail of sparkling light that forms the silhouette of an hourglass before fading away.
As the clip nears its end, the view zooms out, showing the Timekeeper standing atop the highest floating island, watching over the harmonious flow of time in this dreamlike realm. A sense of peace and understanding reflects in his eyes, as if he’s found the key to balancing time’s relentless march with the timeless beauty of the moment.
The scene fades to black, leaving viewers with a sense of wonder and a longing for a world where time flows in harmony with life itself.
Look or Style of Film:
Visual Effects:
Visual Quality & Film Stock: The clip should be rendered to mimic the quality of high-resolution 70mm film stock, known for its rich detail, depth of color, and dynamic range. This choice will give the landscapes and time elements a tactile, immersive feel, with a fine grain texture that adds to the dreamlike atmosphere.
Cameras & Lenses: Utilize digital simulation of vintage anamorphic lenses to capture the wide, panoramic views of the floating islands and the dreamlike landscapes. These lenses will contribute to the surreal quality of the scenes by creating characteristic lens flares and a slightly distorted, yet beautiful wide field of view, emphasizing the vastness and the ethereal nature of the environments.
Lighting: Employ soft, naturalistic lighting with a golden hour glow for daytime scenes, enhancing the dreamlike quality with warm tones and soft shadows. For night scenes, use cooler, moonlit tones with strategic low-light conditions to highlight the mystical elements of the landscape, such as the shimmering river and the glowing crystalline clock. Lighting should be dynamic, subtly changing to reflect the passage of time and the transformations within the dream world.
Color Scheme: The clip should feature a vibrant, yet slightly desaturated color palette, emphasizing pastels and muted tones to create a sense of otherworldliness. This palette will make the transitions between seasons and times of day appear seamless and magical, while still providing a visually rich and engaging experience.
Production Design, Sets, & Costumes: The production design should be intricate and detailed, with each element of the dream world carefully crafted to reflect the theme of fluid time. Sets like the floating islands and the crystalline clock should combine organic and fantastical elements, using materials that appear both natural and ethereal. Costumes for the Timekeeper and any other characters should be timeless, blending elements from different eras and cultures in a way that transcends specific time periods. Fabrics should flow and change, reflecting the mutable nature of time, with subtle, intricate patterns that hint at the complexity of the timekeeper’s realm.
General Aesthetic: The overall aesthetic should draw inspiration from classic surrealist films and paintings, with a modern twist that incorporates advances in visual effects and animation. The goal is to create a visually stunning piece that feels both timeless and innovative, inviting the viewer into a world where time is not a constraint but a canvas for beauty and exploration.
This detailed approach aims to guide the AI in creating a short movie clip that not only tells a compelling story through its visuals but also achieves a specific, high-quality cinematic look and feel, making “Harmony of Time” a captivating and immersive experience.
-Quincy Harris
Autumn Mists
I find interpreting silent films fascinating, especially since I grew up watching sound cinema. Watching silent films comes with a challenge, however, of relying solely on imagery to understand a silent films meaning. This challenge arises while interpreting Brumes d’automne by Dimitri Kirsanoff, but I believe I’ve gathered a good comprehension of the twelve minute silent film.
While there is no established plot outside of the audience’s perspective, the film does include a very poetic story. I believe this film is about a person’s emotional experience with the loss of love. This experience is expressed through intricate montaging techniques and visual storytelling as the world around the main character distorts and blurs. Close ups, stills, panning, transitional shots, film distortion and blur, just to name a few forms of editing this film employs. This love seems to be potentially romantic given the time period this film was made. Various scenes also suggest this theme, including the burning of letters, the shaking of hands with a figure, the scenes of a person leaving a house, and the close up shots of the main character tearing up.
I managed to get a few screenshots to note the scenes I mentioned above to illustrate my reasoning behind my interpretation of the films plot. To start, we have the scenes where the woman is clutching letters that they ultimately burn in the fireplace.
The woman seems reluctant at first to dispose of the letters as she holds onto them for multiple beats. The film shoots from the shoulders up in these scenes, allowing the audience to see the characters whole face and movements with the letters. For these particular scenes, the spatial shots work well to convey this type of emotion.
A montage then follows the rest of the film as we see the woman shake hands with someone, the camera holding position until the hands slowly slip away from one another leaving the woman still in frame. Cut then to a person leaving a building while a piece of paper falls out of their pocket. Then cutting back to the woman, then back again, and so on until the whole scene changes.
Once again, the film’s editing succeeds at conveying the emotion of the woman as we experience her point of view while the figure, assumedly lover, leaves her. Sudden, confusing, and without explanation.
Next up are the usages of montage express the woman’s feelings after her loss of love. So much so that film depicts scenes of nature with a lens distortion/blur while cutting to the woman staring into the distance. Much like the technique we discussed in class where directors will transition scenes based on where the character in the previous scene is looking. The film then cuts and follows the woman walking through the woods while cutting to a scene of a leaf flowing in water. These scenes could be depicting the woman flowing through her emotions and finding some form of acceptance through nature. Once again, here are some screenshots of said scenes.
Camera rotates the shot of the water, cuts back to woman.
Shot of the lake blurs and distorts, almost a radial blur.
Shot drastically changes into something jagged and sharp.
.
A shot of a tree slowly blurs and appears somewhat human-like as it cuts to the woman closing her eyes.
A simple shot of a dock as the camera blurs cutting back to the woman opening her eyes.
The last few scenes of the woman walking down a river and a leaf flowing down a river. A comparison shot of the two.
Overall, Autumn Mists tells a melancholy story through the thoughts of the main character and very intricate film editing.
Thanks for reading,
-Caleb
Run Lola Run retains narrative momentum by both establishing its metaphysical defiance early and by using an array of compositions, camera movements, and types of cuts to weave its images into continuity. Most obvious is the use of the “red phone” image, which slams itself down upon reset of each timeline.
It also repeats an animation and the event of Lola scrambling down the apartment hallway at the beginning. It is not enough to merely repeat the events, however- the composition and camera movements are meticulously imitated, invoking that sense of Deja-vu as the timelines reset and converge. The camera diverges from Lola at the end of the hall, sweeping into a new room where an elderly woman speaking on the phone becomes our new subject. In one timeline, we glide right past her and into the television; As the narrative becomes more frantic, the camera spins erratically before entering the television. As we become more entrenched in the repeated rules and cinematic gestures of the timeline, the film becomes more comfortable breaking them.
One of the more fascinating edits in the movie sees Lola sprinting, the frame interrupted by pillars splitting the image, and occasionally we intercut for a fractional second and see Lola’s face as she runs. A cut is a way to conceal many things, but in this case it is a dilation of time- Run Lola Run frequently manipulate geography with cutting, but these cuts also switch the shots from wide to close, allowing a greater emotional insight and distressing tone.
Run Lola Run is a dense example of the way cutting, composition, images, and editing can allow an audience to understand the spatial and temporal manipulation of a story.
Looping With Lola
Run Lola Run is one of the most fascinating films I’ve seen to date. From the cinematic imagery to camera positions, describing this film to someone who’s not seen it before may throw them for a loop. Describing the narrative momentum of Run Lola Run is the focus of this post however, so let’s dive into it.
How does this film manage to keep the attention of the audience? There’s certainly a lot going on even before the time loop aspect is introduced. There are a handful of factors that retain the film’s momentum, the first being attention to detail.
The first loop introduces most of the films characters that in sequential loops have their lives changed by Lola’s actions. We see this through the pictorial montage after Lola interacts with people. As the audience, it’s interesting to us to see how the lives of the characters change with each time loop. It may entice the audience to think how the next loop will affect these characters, maintaining their interest and giving the film more room to explore this narrative.
Not only do we see repeated characters through each time loop, but objects as well. Clocks are the “golden object” if you will, or the object controlling the flow of the film for the audience. The clock displays where Lola is in the narrative, especially in the following time loops. A clever plot device that helps push along the story while keeping the audience engaged with Lola’s journey.
Similar to the clock, locations in the film are repeated to clearly inform the audience that a time shift is taking place. These locations also help to pinpoint Lola’s location in the narrative, such as the train crossing over the bridge that Lola runs under.
Lastly, Run Lola Run maintains the narrative flow using incredible cinematography and a tight-nit story. There are a few questions left unanswered in the film such as why Lola has super-human screams, how the time loops are happening, and other similar vein of questions. These questions don’t need answering however as I believe the story would become too convoluted for the audience if they were.
To coincide with this point, the films’ identity in the form of cinematography has no real definition since the story has no real answers. The film diverts the audience’s attention with animation, various camera shots, and overall flow to allow the audience to focus on other aspects of the film and ignore the rising questions.
I will be recommending this film to everyone I know.
Take care,
-Caleb